Sydney based wholesaler Carlo Ceravolo said resin canal was appearing on more fruit and consumers were shying away from the product."The last five years, I've seen it progressively getting worse, up until last year when I noticed a significant improvement in the outbreak of resin canal."Mr Ceravolo said he believed the time of fruit picking …

Tropical Storm Carlos spun into life Thursday morning in the Pacific Ocean, about 230 miles south of Acapulco, Mexico. Satellite loops show that Carlos is a small storm in the early stages of organization. But with very warm waters of 30°C (86°F) beneath it and wind shear a moderate 10 - 20 knots, Carlos appears destined to intensify into a hurricane by the weekend. Radar out of Acaupulco shows that the outer spiral bands of Carlos lie just offshore from the Mexican coast, and the storm's west-northwest motion, parallel to the coast, should keep the heaviest rains just offshore. However, if Carlos takes a path slightly closer to the coast than expected, dangerous flooding rains will occur along the coast.

Figure 1. Tropical Depression Three-E south of Acapulco, Mexico as seen at 1:15 pm EDT June 10, 2015, before becoming Tropical Sto…

The latest updates from NOAA (see PDF) and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirm that the El Niño event that began in earnest this spring continues to build. NOAA reports that sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the closely watched Niño3.4 region of the eastern tropical Pacific were 1.2°C above average last week, well into the range associated with moderate El Niño events (+1.0°C to +1.5°C). Based on another marker, the Multivariate ENSO Index, this El Niño event is already into the “strong” category. All of the Niño monitoring regions had SSTs of at least 1.2°C above average last week, making for the most widespread oceanic warmth since the landmark El Niño event of 1997–98. Policymakers and investors are already taking note of the potential implications of the intensifying El Niño for agriculture and the economy.

Figure 1. Sea-surface temperatures on June 8 show the hallmark of El Niño, with a…